Dame Jonathan tasks UN beauty queen on devt

First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, yesterday in Abuja challenged the winner of the Miss United Nations Nigeria Pageant 2015, Precious Chikwendu, to use her privileged position to impact positively on the society.
She gave the challenge while congratulating Miss Chikwendu who won the 2014 edition of the pageant in Kingston, Jamaica.
Dame Jonathan expressed optimism that such pageants would enable contestants develop their personalities and make them stronger and passionate to positively impact on the society.
The First Lady who was represented at the occasion by Mrs. Peace Nnaji, however, added that the beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.
This, she said, goes to show the need for women to always take care of their appearance.
“Remember, looking good is worth all the troubles, this is because beauty is the totality of the state of a woman`s health, physically, psychologically and mentally,’’ she said.
She assured the outgoing Queen of her continued support in her determination to make young women better citizens.
Using her Snow White Foundation, the outgoing Queen said she adopted a lifecycle approach of development, focusing its interventions on children, their families and the larger community with emphasis on the less privileged.
The outgoing Queen explained that the main focus of the pageant was to have volunteers who were ready to use beauty to add value to humanity.
She held that it focuses on volunteer work, adding that each contestant must have a background in volunteer work for her community.
The contestants at the 2015 Nigerian version of the pageant were accessed on the basis of character, personality, conversational skill, beauty, fashion and intelligence.
The pageant had a category for singles, married women, single mothers and teens, because of its belief that every woman has a voice at any stage of her life.
Winners of the teens and married women categories would be further groomed and would join Miss United Nations (Nigeria) to represent Nigeria at the main Miss United Nations Pageant, holding in July in Kingston, Jamaica.
Miss Vivian Nnamani, who represented the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja emerged as Miss United Nations (Nigeria) while Miss Kessy Isong, representing Akwa Ibom state, emerged as her first runner up at the pageant.
The winners are expected to go home with a cash reward and a brand new car.
The 2015 Miss United Nations Nigeria Pageant was sponsored by Chikwendu, the outgoing Queen.